Chapter 5

Actualized participant: that which is actually realized in the clause, not omitted or understood.
Affected subject: that participant who carries out the action and simultaneously is affected by
it or, in passive sentences, the participant that is target of the action and is affected by it.
Agent: the participant that carries out the action.
Affected participant: that whose state changes as a result of the agent carrying out the action
(Mary eats rice).
Affective process: those which are realized by verbs that express our good or bad feelings
about entities (love, hate, despise).
Agentive subject: that which deliberately executes a process.
Analytical causative: those causatives that, with verbs like make or turn, announce that the
affected participant has gone through a change of state, realized by an attribute (I had my pots
and pans professionally cleaned).
Anthropocentrism: belief that humans are the most important entity.
Anti-causative structure: that in which an agent cannot be added, the clause rather focuses on
the affected rather than the agent that initiates the action.
Attributes: traits that identify a participant of the clause.
Attributive: type of being that identifies the property of the entity it is referring to as its
signature characteristic.

Behavioral process verbs: those which realize mostly involuntary actions of perceiving (look,
listen).
Behavioral process: middle ground between mental and material processes which are typically
non-volitional, like sneeze, blink, cough.
Beneficiary: participant that is intended to get something from the agent (He cooked dinner
for Sarah).

Causative verb: that which indicates that a participant in the clause did something for another
entity.
Circumstances: factors that are involved in the situation that is talked about in a clause.
Clause: a situation type expressed through a pattern of experience.
Cognitive processes: those that are realized through verbs that involve comprehension (know,
guess, think, forget).
Circumstantial relational process: those in which the circumstantial component cannot be
removed, as it is fundamental for the clause to be grammatical. This circumstance is realized as
an attribute and is deeply linked to the experiencing entity.
Current attribute: that which is depicted with a stative verb, meaning that said attribute is
valid at the moment that it is being referred to.

Desiderative processes: those that are realized by verbs that express our wishes (want,
desire).
Deverbal nominal: nominal groups that complete the meaning of certain verbs that have a
light meaning, like have, take, do…
Dynamic process: those in which something happens.
Effected participant: those that are the outcome of some kind of process.
Ergative pair: structure that can occur when the affected object of a transitive clause is also
the affected subject of an intransitive clause (I closed the window / The window closed).
Existent: the only participant of an existential process.
Existential process: those which depict a situation of existing or happening, using the structure
there + be.
Experiencer/Senser/Carrier: the participant that senses a certain phenomenon.

Force: the inanimate agent that carries out the action, but cannot control it (for
meteorological phenomenons, mental states, natural disasters…).

Grammatical metaphor: usage of nominalization and rearranging of the parts of a clause with
the aim of changing the way in which the original action is understood.

Iconic order: arrangement of words in a clause whose realization depicts reality closely.
Identifying pattern: relationship that links together and labels the participants –identified and
identifier- in terms of each other.

Material process verbs: those that refer to situations of doing or happening. They are usually
stative and involuntary.
Medium: the participant that, in ergative pairs, can be both the affected subject or the
affected object, depending on the transitivity of the clause.
Mental process verbs: those that refer to situations of feeling or experiencing.

Nominalization: process realized through a nominal group with the aim of slightly changing
the connotations of the original message.

Participant roles: those entities which are involved in the process.

Phenomenon: sensation that is perceived by the experiencer.
Possessive relational processes: those that imply a relationship of ownership, part-whole,
association, among many others, between a possessor and a possessed entity.
Process: part of the clause (usually a verb) that expresses the situation we are referring to.
Pseudo-intransitives: constructions that usually transitive but with certain verbs can admit an
affected subject (This particular wooden floor cleans so easily).

Range: the nominalized action implied in a process (live your life).

Recipient: participant that gets something from the agent (She gave Mario a book).
Relational process verbs: those that refer to situations of being or becoming.
Resulting attribute: that which is depicted through a dynamic verb, meaning that said attribute
is the outcome of a process.

Said: what is communicated by the sayer, usually realized by a nominal group or a what- clause
(what he told me).
Sayer: participant which communicates in any way.
Semantic configuration:
Static process: those in which the situation lasts for such a long time that they cannot be said
to happen at a precise moment. (Example: like, hate, agree)

Transitivity hypothesis: theory that suggests that verbs can be more or less transitive
depending on a series of circumstances involved.
Unwitting agent: participant that carries out the action but is not responsible for it or did not
intend to perform it.

Verbal process: those that communicate something through verbs like say, tell, answer.
Volitional: action that is executed in a voluntary way.